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Mavs’ Bingaman finishes second at CMU Invite

The Colorado Mesa University men’s golf team took fifth place in the Colorado Mesa Invitational on Tuesday at The Bridges at Black Canyon Golf Course in Montrose. Mesa was fifth going into the final round.

Senior Brandon Bingaman led the way with a second-place finish. His 4-over-par 217 was two strokes behind Sean Thomas of CSU-Pueblo.

Colorado School of Mines won the team title with a three-round score of 871. CSU-Pueblo was second with 872. Mesa shot an 887.

“I couldn’t be more happy with the consistency,” CMU coach Paul Brown said. “I’m disappointed for Sean (Robbins) and Brandon because I know their expectations were much higher. If Sean and Brandon get their games together, we’ll be more than competitive.

“I told our players during our team meeting, our expectations with the players we have, I fully expect them to start winning some tournaments. You have to learn how to win tournaments. It’s a process, and the kids are starting to understand that.”

Colorado Mesa shot 294 in the final round. The Mavs shot 296 and 297 in the first two rounds Monday.

Bingaman, a senior, shot a 74 in the third round. He carded a 75 in the first round and 68 in the second round.

“The first 18 holes, maybe from being the preseason RMAC player of the year, the pressure got to him,” Brown said of Bingaman. “Today, he was pressing again. He gave up six or eight shots I watched.”

This was Colorado Mesa’s first home invitational since its first season in 2009–10 and first at The Bridges.

“It’s a great venue,” Brown said of the course. “It was in terrific shape. All the coaches I talked to were complimentary. It’s my hope we have it there annually. It’s not to take anything away from Bookcliff Country Club, Redlands Mesa or the other courses in Grand Junction.”

Volleyball

Colorado Mesa won its third straight RMAC match to open conference play.

CMU (9-2, 3-0 RMAC) struggled in its attack after taking a 2-0 lead in the match. A dozen hitting errors in the third game and 11 more in the fourth helped the Skyhawks (5-6, 1-2) tie the match, but Mesa regrouped.

A kill by Audrey Steinkirchner gave the Mavs an 8-6 lead in the final game, and a Fort Lewis attack error made it 9-6. The Skyhawks tied it at 9-9, and a CMU attack error gave Fort Lewis a 10-9 lead. However, the Skyhawks couldn’t finish it, committing a service error, three straight attack errors (Abby Ney and Kelly Regimbal teamed up for a block in that span) and a ball handling error to put the Mavs on top to stay, 14-10.

Regimbal put the match away with her 11th kill of the match.

Christian Otzen led Mesa with 14 kills and Rachael Beaty added 10. Megan Rush had 23 digs and one of three CMU service aces.